Data Governance – Growing and Expanding

By Jim Orr, Director, Enterprise Data Strategy, Harte-Hanks Trillium Software

By all indications, data governance continues to gain momentum and compete for top billing in the industry. The recent MDM Conference in San Francisco and the Data Governance Conference in San Diego are good barometers for this. In both cases, conference attendance was up and the topic of data governance was splashed everywhere.

While I found much of the messaging and presentations around data governance to be siloed and somewhat confusing, I can see where the industry is beginning to more clearly define this discipline at an administrative, technical, business, and tactical layer.

I also found companies to be more specific as to why they attended these events which is a sign that this discipline is maturing. In other words, it was less of a curiosity as in past years and more about how do I go about actually making this a reality within my organization.

Of interest was the number of vendors that are getting on board and touting a solution for data governance. Albeit, some are just jumping on the train with the same technologies others have announced some creative solutions. One that caught my eye was the data governance work flow management tool that Kalido unveiled at the Data Governance Conference. Certainly not a be-all end-all to data governance, it does begin to address the tactical aspects of work flow management.

I also heard some interesting back room dialogue from some of our industry leaders suggesting that the term data governance does not adequately describe this discipline. This is music to my ears! As I mentioned before here and elsewhere, data governance is really about Information Asset Management. It just happens to have various components to it, including the strategic and tactical management of data.

Does this ring true with you and your experiences?

Comments

[Jill Wanless]

Hi Jim! I like your comment 'data governance does not adequately describe this discipline." One of the key components of good data quality is the provision to ensure EVERYONE understands the meaning of the data, and since the term Governance can mean many things to many people, it's not always clear what it means when you apply it to data. The management of information as an asset though...now THAT is a concept that is very easy to understand.
Happy to see your smiling face,
Jill